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James Corbett, Inside World Football

Friday, February 27, 2015

An Egyptian Cabinet decision to end the suspension of
professional soccer in late March but reinstitute the ban on spectators
attending matches could spark renewed clashes between militant fans and
security forces. The decision against the backdrop of mounting evidence that
Egyptian general-turned-President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi has no apparent intention
of easing repression implicitly acknowledges the role of fans in continued
widespread opposition to his rule.

Professional soccer was suspended in early February after
some 20 members of Ultras White Knights (UWK), the militant support group of Al
Zamalek SC, were killed in a stampede at a Cairo stadium. The incident was
likely the result of supporters seeking to gain access to a match in the
absence of available tickets rather than a deliberate and planned assault by
security forces. UWK is nevertheless convinced that it was targeted by security
forces much like militant supports of Zamalek arch rival Al Ahli were three
years ago.

Soccer has been suspended for much of the last four years
since mass anti-government protests erupted in 2011 that forced President Hosni
Mubarak from office. Spectators have been banned from matches that were played since
74 supporters of Al Ahli were killed in 2012 in a politically loaded brawl in
Port Said. The stampede in Cairo was after Port Said, the worst sporting
incident in recent Egyptian sporting history.

Militant, highly politicized, street battle-hardened
supporters of both clubs played a key role in the demonstrations that removed Mr.
Mubarak from power and in protests against all subsequent governments,
including that of Mr. Al Sisi. The fans have long called for an end to bans on
spectators and have repeatedly clashed with security forces in protest against
it.

The renewed ban is as a matter of principle unlikely to go
down well with the fans. UWK said earlier that it has no faith in a government
investigation of the Cairo stampede or the Egyptian justice system and would
prevent matches from being played until justice had been served for its
martyrs.

The fans’ no-confidence vote came in response to a pledge by
Mr. Al Sisi in a televised speech that those responsible for the UWK deaths
would be held accountable. Overall, the president appeared to suggest in his
address that there would be some easing of brutal repression that has cost the
lives of at least 1,400 protesters in the last 20 months and put thousands more
behind bars. Speaking a day before the verdict in a trial against prominent
bloggers and activists, Mr. Al Sisi said that “I am sure there are many
innocent people inside prisons. Soon many of them will be released according to
the available permissions.”

Mr. Al Sisi’s remarks regarding the stampede came in the
wake of reports in state-run media that unlike Zamalek, with its
confrontational approach to its militant fan base, Al Ahli has succeeded in
reducing tensions by engaging with Ultras Ahlawy, the club’s hard line support
group. The reports appeared to suggest
that Mr. Al Sisi might be backing away from earlier tacit support for a war against
UWK by Zamalek president Mortada Mansour, a larger than life character and
long-standing ally of Messrs. Mubarak and Al Sisi.

Mr. Mortada has prided himself on asking the security forces
to intervene to prevent fans from entering the Cairo stadium without tickets,
charging that UWK had been paid to confront the security forces. In response to
a journalist’s question about how fans of his club had died, Mr. Mortada, who
asserts that UWK tried to assassinate him, said, “ask the Muslim Brotherhood,”
the group of Mohammed Morsi, the president toppled by Mr. Al Sisi in a military
coup in June 2013 that has since been outlawed as a terrorist organization and
that has suffered the brunt of security force brutality in the last 20 months.

Mr. Mansour has charged that UWK tried to assassinate him.
His petition that the group be banned as a terrorist organizations has however
been rejected by two Egyptian courts who argued that they were not the
competent authority.

“There is a major difference between the approach of Ahli
and Zamalek. Taher was smart; he knew that it’s unnecessary to create any rifts
with that section of the supporters as long as the channel of communication
operates perfectly,” Ahram Online quoted sports journalist Sherif Hassan as
saying. Mr. Hassan was referring to Al
Ahli president Mahmoud Taher, who in December persuaded Ahlawy ultras to
voluntarily leave an empty stadium they had stormed hours before an African
Confederation Cup final.

Any hope the fans and other Egyptians may have had that
change was at hand was dashed a day later when a court sentenced prominent
activist and blogger Alaa Abd El Fattah to five years in prison and 24 others tothree years for violating Egypt’s draconic
anti-protests law. At about the same time, UWK’s convictions that it was
targeted were reinforced by an audio recording obtained by Al Jazeera that
appeared to reveal Egyptian interior minister Mohamed Ismail discussing how the
government can crack down on protesters.

In a meeting with senior officers of Egypt’s notorious
Central Security Force (CSF), Mr. Ibrahim is heard discussing a strategy for
dealing with demonstrations, including ways to shoot protesters without turning
them into martyrs. He suggested that the CSF using anything ““permitted by law
without hesitation from water to machine guns.”
The meeting was held in advance of a major anti-government protest on November
28in which at least four protesters were killed.

Potentially deepening animosity between the security forces
and fans, Mr. Ibrahim went on to say that no attempt at political change in
Egypt would succeed without the support of the military and the police, in his
words, “the strongest institutions in the state.”

Mr. Ibrahim, who served in the Morsi government, played an
important behind-the-scenes role in exploiting widespread criticism of Mr.
Morsi and instigating mass protests against his government in late June 2013
that persuaded the military to remove Egypt’s first and only democratically
elected president from office.

Militant fans were divided in their evaluation of the Morsi
government but united in their frustration that the hopes for greater freedoms
and social and economic justice after the overthrow of Mr. Mubarak had not been
achieved. In the absence of security sector reform, Mr. Ibrahim’s remarks are
likely to reinforce hostility between his ministry and fans who have proven to
be a constant thorn in the government’s side.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam
School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore,
co-director of the Institute of Fan Culture of the University of Wurzburg and
the author of the blog, The
Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer and a forthcoming book with
the same title.

Saturday, February 21, 2015

Recent soccer-related racism highlights European nations’
tortured transition from ethnically relatively homogeneous to multicultural
immigration societies amid a resurgence of entrenched racial, including
anti-Semitic, attitudes that flourish in times of economic crisis and are not
limited to Muslim communities.

Fans across Europe have lined up on both sides of the racism
divide in a debate that involves despite recent attacks on freedom of speech
and Jewish symbols in Copenhagen and Paris, Jews, blacks and Europeans of
immigrant extraction in general as much as it does Muslims. The debate is being
waged against the backdrop of the rise of the extreme right in a Europe that
struggles with high unemployment, low economic growth and thousands of refugees
washing up against its shores who are seeking refuge from conflict in the
Middle East and Africa.

The targeting by racist fans of Muslims and non-Muslims
alike is evident in a survey of numerous racist expressions on and off the
pitch. It has sparked opposition from soccer enthusiasts to whom racism is
abhorrent.

Right-wing fans often have links to racist political
organizations whose legitimacy is being enhanced by European leaders like
British Prime Minister David Cameron who recently refused to rule out a future
coalition with the UK Independence Party (UKIP) that has no issue with
associating itself with Holocaust deniers and denounces not only Muslims but
also economic immigrants from Eastern Europe.

Europe’s transition to multiculturalism was first dealt a
body blow by Al Qaeda’s 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington, subsequent
bombings of public transport in Madrid and London, the murder in Amsterdam of a
Dutch filmmaker, the flow of Europeans fighters joining the ranks of the
Islamic State, the jihadist group that controls a swath of Syria and Iraq, and
finally the recent attacks in Copenhagen and Paris.

European leaders have been at pains to insist that the
continent’s confrontation with political violence constitutes a conflict with
radicalism rather than with Islam. Yet, racism on and off the pitch is rooted
in entrenched racial attitudes that became publicly taboo post-World War Two
but were never eradicated. They are reinforced by a failure to acknowledge that
immigration starting with decolonization and a wave of Mediterranean guest
workers in the 1960s has fundamentally changed the nature of European society and
by discrimination in education, employment and off-the-pitch soccer.

The latest incident of soccer racism in Paris with supporters
of Chelsea FC, which fields some of England’s most talented black players, chanting
“we're racist, we're racist, and that's the way we like it" demonstrates
the point. The fans repeatedly shoved a native Parisian off a metro train
because of his skin colour rather than his faith. Italian police days later
arrested 22 fans of Feyenoord Rotterdam for rioting in Rome and damaging the Baroque
fountain on the Spanish Steps.

Right-wing, self-styled hooligans in Germany supported by the
neo-Nazi National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD) who in November set aside
rivalries to riot in Cologne against the spread of what they termed radical Islam
pride themselves on also targeting anarchists, Marxist-Leninists and other
left-wing extremists. Some 50 police officers and 20 fans were injured in
clashes.

By contrast, the English Defence League that trace its roots
to a right-wing soccer sub-culture emerged as exclusively anti-Muslim as have similar
groups in Norway and Denmark. “What we’re seeing…is that the groups of ultra
sports fans are themselves infiltrated by neo-Nazis,” said Esteban Ibarra, president
of Spanish advocacy group Movement Against Intolerance.

Increased expression of racism on the pitch is not going
unchallenged. European clubs who thrive on fielding multicultural teams are opportunistically
recognizing when convenient the continent’s new reality in which immigrants
account for up to 20 percent of the population. Real Madrid CF has removed the
traditional Christian cross from their official club crest in a gesture that
was as much designed to signal multiculturalism as it was to cement a lucrative
three-year sponsorship deal with the National Bank of Abu Dhabi.

Yet, the
gesture follows repeated expressions of anti-Semitism in Spanish sports,
including some 18,000 people last May endorsing a profane and anti-Semitic
hashtag after Real Madrid was defeated by Maccabi Tel Aviv in the final of
Europe’s main basketball tournament.

Newcastle United football fans are meanwhile rallying against
German anti-Islam movement Patriotic Europeans against the Islamisation of the
West (Pegida) that plans to hold its first British march on February 28, the
day Newcastle United plays Aston Villa at St James' Park. Pegida said the march
was to “show the Islamists we show no fear.” In Madrid, a fan was killed in
December in a clash between left and right wing soccer club supporters.

Holland’s Vitesse Arnhem was criticized last year for
playing a friendly in Abu Dhabi despite the fact that its Israeli defender Dan
Mori was refused a visa. Similarly, when Brazilian striker Dani Alves was taunted
last year with a banana by fans, politicians and supporters across Europe ate bananas
to denounce the insult to the Barcelona player on the grounds of his skin
colour.

The failure to acknowledge societal change is reflected in
the fact that senior soccer management in Europe does not reflect the cultural
and racial diversity of society and the sport itself. Soccer management remains
dominated by white Christian males, some of whom have in recent years been
embroiled in controversy over racist and discriminatory remarks.

Piara Powar, executive director of Football Against Racism
in Europe (FARE), warned in an interview with England’s Press Association that
the wave of racism in soccer was part of a broader picture. “People don't
respect ethnic minorities, except as players,” Mr. Powar said.

James M. Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam
School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University in Singapore,
co-director of the Institute of Fan Culture of the University of Wurzburg and
the author of the blog, The
Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer and a forthcoming book with
the same title.

Sunday, February 15, 2015

A stampede at a Cairo stadium earlier this month, much like
a politically-loaded soccer brawl in the Suez Canal city of Port Said three years
ago, is shining a spotlight on Egypt’s unreformed, unabashedly violent, and
politically powerful police and security forces amid confusion over what
precisely happened and how many fans died.

Amid security forces holding fans and fans holding police responsible
and conflicting assertions of the number of people who died in the incident one
thing stands out: the deep-seated distrust and animosity between significant
segments of the Egyptian public and an unreformed security force that was long the
hated symbol of the regime of toppled President Hosni Mubarak; played a key
role in persuading the military in 2013 to overthrow Egypt’s first and only
democratic elected president; and has since left a bloody of brutal violence as
evidenced by the deaths of some 1,400 anti-government protesters in the last 19
months.

In a report,
Amnesty International underlined this week the persistent lack of
accountability of Egypt’s security forces. “The Egyptian government has, as of
yet, failed to hold any security officers accountable for these killings. A
fact-finding committee established by former interim president Adly Mansour to
investigate the killings also failed to hold any security officer accountable
for these killings.“ It noted that the stadium deaths came barely two weeks
after the killing of Shaimaa Al-Sabbagh by security forces sparked widespread
outrage.

A 31-year-old protester, Ms. Al-Sabbagh, was shot, according
to eye witnesses, by masked policemen after they attacked a small procession
aiming to lay flowers on Tahrir Square in memory of Egypt’s derailed 2011 revolution.
An editorial in Al Ahram, Egypt’s foremost state-owned newspaper, in an unusual
break with its towing of the government line, condemned Ms. Al Sabbagh’s killing
as cold-blooded murder for which it held the police responsible.

“The invulnerable facts conveyed by the eyewitness accounts
from Shaimaa’s partners in the demonstration, and by the footage of her
killing, clearly indicate the killer, the misuse of power and a failure to
implement the law,” Al Ahram editor Ahmed Sayed Naggar said in the editorial. Mr.
Naggar called on general-turned-president Abdel Fattah Al Sisi to ensure that
justice was served in Ms. Al Sabbagh’s case. The responsibility for doing so,
he wrote, is “on all our shoulders, first and foremost on the elected president
entrusted to protect the souls of this nation’s sons from the abuse of power.”

Mr. Naggar’s editorial was believed to signal differences
within the government and a realization among some senior officials that
excessive security force violence was fuelling anti-government sentiment and
damaging Egypt’s image. That realization is likely to be reinforced by the
stadium incident and could spark some degree of reform of the police and
security forces

The stakes for Mr. Al Sisi are high given that police
brutality was one driver for the mass protests in 2011 that forced Mr. Mubarak
to resign after 30 years in office. Stadia were a key arena where security
force violence contributed to the build-up of resistance to the Mubarak regime in
the four years prior to the president’s ouster.

As a result, professional soccer matches have either been
suspended or largely played behind closed doors since Mr. Mubarak’s downfall.
The closures did little to stymie soccer-related violence that peaked a week
ago when a decision to allow a limited number of fans into the Cairo stadium
erupted in demands for broader access and a total lifting of the ban.

The Amnesty report described various incidents of excessive
force by security forces in clashes with soccer fans since the fall of Mr.
Mubarak. Amnesty said security forces had employed force “on a scale not seen”
since the uprising against Mr. Mubarak in early 2011 during six days of vicious
battles on Cairo’s Mohammed Mahmoud Street in November 2011 in which 51 people
were killed. It said security forces used live ammunition, shotgun pellets,
tear gas and beatings.

“In all the cases documented by Amnesty International, live ammunition
and shotgun pellets were used in circumstances where those killed or injured posed
no imminent risk to the life of the security forces or others. Many people told
Amnesty International that shotgun pellets were fired towards protesters from a
distance of just a few metres. This caused many injuries to the eyes, leading
to loss of sight in many cases,” the report said. It said only one security
officer, Mahmoud Sobhi Shannawi, who was nicknamed the eye-hunter for targeting
protesters’ eyes, was the only officer to have been charged for the killing and
injuring of protesters on Mohamed Mahmoud Street and that his trial was still ongoing

Some two months later, security forces killed another 16
fans and injured hundreds of others in four days of protests in the wake of the
Port Said incident. Fans accused the interior ministry of at the very least
failing to protect the Al Ahli fans in Port Said if not having orchestrated the
incident. Nine security officials were among 75 people charged with
responsibility for the incident. Only two of the security officials were
sentenced to prison sentences while 21 Al Masri fans were given a death
sentence. The case is winding its way through the appeal process.

In a series of recommendations, Amnesty suggested that the
government:

Announce its firm
commitment to reform the police and security apparatus and bring legislation
governing it and its forces’ activities in line with international human rights
standards

Publish a clear structure
of the various security branches with a clear chain of command

Establish a vetting system
to ensure that, pending investigation, members of the police and others about
whom there is evidence of serious human rights violations do not remain or are
not placed in positions where they could repeat such violations

Review all standard
operational procedures to be make them as clear and as unambiguous as possible
and provide adequate training on them and other standards to the police force
and make them public when possible

Ensure that police receive
adequate training in soft-skills, such as negotiation, persuasion, mediation
and trust building, to enable them to de-escalate situations and have a constructive
relationship with the population

Establish an independent
accountability and oversight body with authority over all aspects of police
operations. Such a body should have an independent, effective and impartial
complaints mechanism that can deal with complaints about police or security forces’
misconduct and human rights violations

Issue clear instructions to
all offices of the Public Prosecution that all allegations of abuses by the
police are to be fully investigated and without undue delay

Ensure that all members of
the police force suspected of unlawful killing and injuries in policing
demonstrations or in prisons and other detention centres; or for torture or
other ill-treatment; including those who committed the violations and anyone
who ordered others to commit them, are tried in proceedings that meet international
standards of fair trial.

The most benign explanation for the bloody track record of
the police and the security forces is that they lack training and experience in
crowd control. That explanation fails to wash however given that the record
dates back many years in which calls for better training of a force that
routinely employed non-commissioned thugs to do its dirty work were
deliberately rejected or ignored and in which the security forces did
everything to maintain their position as a pillar of repression that for all
practical matters was above the law.

In February 2012, police and security forces stood aside as
74 fans of storied Cairo club Al Ahli SC died in a stampede in a stadium in Port
Said sparked by an attack by supporters of rival Al Masri SC and allegedly
unknown armed elements. The incident is widely viewed as an effort backed by
security forces and the military to cut down to size militant Al Ahli
supporters who like their arch rivals from Al Zamalek SC played a key role in
the toppling of Mr. Mubarak and protests against all subsequent Egyptian governments.

Like in Port Said, the interior ministry which oversees the
security forces rejects any responsibility for the deaths a week ago in Cairo
as a result of police firing tear gas into a narrow corridor of metal
barricades and barbed wire as thousands of fans waited to enter the Air Defence
stadium. Yet, like in Port Said, a video shows that at the start of the stampede
fans begged the police to open the stadium gates to prevent casualties. The
interior ministry has dismissed the video as a fabrication.

The incident has highlighted Egypt’s unabated polarization
that erupted in June 2013 with military and security-force backed mass protests
against the government of elected President Mohammed Morsi. That polarization
has spilt into soccer with supporters of Al Ahli and Al Zamalek playing a key
role in expanding anti-Sisi protests from the stadia to university campuses
across Egypt in which scores have been killed.

The government despite announcing that it was investigating
the stadium incident has left little doubt that it holds the Ultras White
Knights (UWK), the militant, street battle-hardened support group of Zamalek,
responsible for the deaths which it puts at 20 as opposed to a list of 43 names
published by UWK that has gone viral on the Internet. Police have meanwhile
arrested UWK members even before the investigation has been concluded.

A pro-government television host, Ahmed Moussa, demanded
that the dead not be identified as martyrs in contrast to the victims of Port
Said because they had died breaking the law by trying to enter the stadium
without tickets. In denouncing the dead, Mr. Moussa was feeding into attempts
by Zamalek president Mortada Mansour reportedly backed by the government to persuade
the courts to outlaw UWK as a terrorist organization. So did the firing by
Zamalek of centre-right Omar Gaber after he became the only Zamalek player to refuse
to play the match while fans were being attacked

by security forces outside the
stadium.

In an interview on television, Mr. Mortada charged that Mr.
Gaber was an ultra, a militant soccer fan. In response to a question about how
fans of his club died, Mr. Mortada, who asserts that UWK tried to assassinate
him, said, “ask the Muslim Brotherhood,” the group of deposed president Morsi
that has since been outlawed as a terrorist organization and that has suffered
the brunt of security force brutality in the last 19 months. Mr. Mansour went
as far as issuing a statement
saying that he had asked police to intervene at the stadium to counter the fans
“thuggery.” At a news conference, Mr. Mortada went on to suggest that the fans
had been paid to clash with security forces.

Mr. Gaber’s firing, the refusal of the majority of Zamalek
players to show solidarity with the victims of the incident outside the
stadium, and Mr. Mortada’s siding with the government in blaming the fans
rather than the security forces for the deaths bodes ill for already strained
relations between Zamalek’s management, players and fans. The attitude of the
club and the players will serve to reconfirm the ultras’ analysis of the power
structure of soccer in which management is a pawn of the regime, players are
mercenaries who play for the highest bidder, and fans are the only true
supporters of a team.

The stark dividing lines between management, players and
fans coupled with the fans deep-seated distrust of the interior ministry and
the security forces reinforced by the absence of any attempt by the government
to project a unambigious willingness to independently investigate and curb
excessive police force is preparing the ground for further confrontation.

Not prone to reading tea leaves such as the Al Ahram
editorial, UWK has already sworn revenge. ”We have no confidence in the justice
system or the government’s willingness to ensure that justice is served. We now
have 43 martyrs. We have no choice: Soccer will not be played in Egypt until
justice has been served and the rights of our martyrs have been secured,” said
one UWK member.

James M.
Dorsey is a senior fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies
as Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, co-director of the Institute
of Fan Culture of the University of Würzburg and the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer, and a forthcoming book with the
same title.

Nearly one hundred soccer fans have died in clashes with police over the past three years. But the country's interior ministry denies responsibility.

Portraits of the victims of the Port Said Stadium are seen as Supporters of Egypt's Al-Ahly football club gather in Mokhtar El-Tetsh Stadium in Cairo, on February 1, 2014, to mark the second anniversary of the deadly riot. (AFP/AFP/Getty Images)

CAIRO, Egypt — There was a terrible sense of deja vu for Egypt when at least 22 people were killed during clashes with security forces outside a soccer stadium on Sunday.

Witnesses said that most died from suffocation or were crushed in the stampede that followed when security forces fired tear gas to disperse spectators who were trying to force their way into the match between local teams Zamalek and Enppi.

Videos of the incident show fans wedged between large coils of barbed wire reinforced with metal to form a kind of cage and police firing tear gas at them.

Egypt has been here before. Sunday’s violence brought the death toll for soccer fans killed at games to nearly a hundred in three years. The worst instance came on Feb. 1, 2012, when 74 fans were killed at a match in the canal city of Port Said.

The league was suspended for a year after those deaths. When it resumed, games were played in empty stadiums. Again this week, the Egyptian domestic soccer league was suspended until further notice following the deaths on Sunday.

Egypt’s Ultras have a long history of confrontations with the police. Like their counterparts in Europe, where the rowdy soccer fan culture originates, they often use fireworks, are loud and at times get unruly.

Since they emerged in Egypt in 2007 they have often clashed with police. They say their experience confronting security forces and Egypt’s notorious police brutality led to their prominent role in the 2011 revolution.

In response to Sunday’s violence, the Ministry of the Interior spokesman Hani Abdel Latif said he “refused to hold the Interior Ministry responsible” for the killings. The Ministry said in its official statement that “large numbers of ticketless fans tried to storm the stadium, which caused security forces to prevent them from damaging the stadium facilities.”

Not all of those killed during the clashes were Ultras. The youngest victim was a 14-year-old girl, according to the Forensic Medical Authority.

The White Knights, a prominent group of Zamalek Ultras, called it a “premeditated massacre.”

Political clashes

But clashes between the police and the Ultras are not simply a matter of containing rowdy soccer fans.

“Most of the incidents that have involved the Ultras, and there have been numerous, have really been the equivalent of clashes between demonstrators and security forces,” says James Dorsey, co-director of the Institute of Fan Culture at the University of Wuerzburg and editor of the blog “The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.”

“In a country, whether under the Mubarak regime or the Sisi regime, that tolerates no uncontrolled public space,” he says, the claiming of public space is “inherently political.”

He adds that the relationship between the Ultras and the police has long been tense.

“Animosity between the security forces and the Ultras is mutual and whether it’s Ultras or others, intervention by security forces produces victims in ways that it shouldn’t and that has to do with the failure to restructure or reform the security forces,” says Dorsey.

Egypt's 2011 revolution and the associated violence left hundreds dead in clashes with Egypt’s security forces.

“[I]n the last four years police violence and crimes by the security apparatus, committed with full impunity, have reached levels unknown in Egypt’s modern history,” Egypt’s leading rights groups said in a joint statement on Tuesday.

Poor training

Some say that poor training for police, many of them conscripts, is partly to blame — but that’s not the whole story.

"Training has always been really bad, it’s not necessarily getting any worse, but it’s not improving and there is a normalization of higher levels of violence and loss of life," says Karim Ennarah, security sector researcher with the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights.

When fired at close range, in large quantities or in a confined space, tear gas can be lethal.

"The key thing is you shouldn't fire it directly into a crowd or into a closed space,” says Ennarah. “It's supposedly a dispersal weapon and if it's fired and there's nowhere to get out there's a high probability of asphyxiation, and it's not like the police has no experience with that."

Thirty-seven prisoners were killed in August of 2013 when officers fired tear gas into a police van outside of Abu Zaabal prison. The case resulted in one of few convictions of police for their role in the deaths of protesters over the last four years, but the sentences were overturned and a retrial is now ongoing.

Sitting outside
Cairo’s main mortuary on Sunday night, as the bodies of dead football fans were
carried in and out for their autopsies, Saad Abdelhamid thinks he knows why
they have died. “The massacre that took place today was revenge on those who
took part in the revolution,” says the 27-year-old salesman.

“Witness this,”
shouts another mourner, raising his bloodied hands. “Witness what our
government is doing to our kids.”

But the
circumstances that prompted the stampede – police fired teargas and shotgun
pellets into the midst of thousands of fans confined in a narrow passage lined
with barbed wire – has led traumatised survivors like Abdelhamid to claim their
friends were targeted on purpose. And for political reasons.

Amateur footage of Sunday’s
stampede in Cairo.

To understand how
such a perception might be formed, Abdelhamid says you have to rewind to 2011.
Fans from Cairo’s two main clubs, Zamalek and their arch rivals, Ahly, had long
clashed with police and each other for footballing reasons. But from 2011 onwards,
their members – often middle-class students – began to play a more political role,
even if to this day the groups themselves publicly maintain that they are apolitical.

“They made a
difference in the street in Port Said, Alexandria and Cairo,” argues
Abdelhamid, who, as a revolutionary himself, fought alongside them. (A Zamalekfan, he has also attended games with the
ultras since 2007. But he is not a Ultras White Knights (UWK) member himself,
and so is not subject to their longstanding media boycott.)

A member of the Ultras White Knights
cries during Zamalek’s match with and ENPPI in Cairo.Photograph: Ahmed Abd el-Gwad/AP

After Mubarak made
way for an army junta, ultras from Ahly and Zamalek continued to make their
presence felt, chanting against the regime’s new leaders inside the stadium,
and taking part in protests outside it.

They were and are
by no means a unified block, says James Dorsey, author of The Turbulent World of Middle East
Soccer. But their numbers mean “they constitute one of the largest
social groups in Egypt”. And their ability to mobilise, even inside a stadium,
poses an inherent threat to the authoritarian state.

The Egyptian
regime, says Dorsey, “do not tolerate any uncontrolled public space – which
means that both the mosque and the soccer pitch are potential problems. They
are two of the institutions that evoke the deepest-seated passions of a
significant section of the Egyptian public, and you can’t permanently shut them
down.”

But depending on
who you believe, this didn’t stop the regime from trying to do so. In February
2012, days after Ahly’s ultras chanted that Egypt’s military junta were “dogs
like the police”, over 70 of them were killed in
clashes that followed a game in Port Said.

Ostensibly, this
was a case of fan-on-fan violence: Ahly’s supporters were attacked and killed
by locals from Port Said. But for the ultras, there were too many smoking guns
to rule out the state’s involvement – and parts of what happened seemed to have
been planned. Someone switched off the stadium lights as soon as the attack
began. Someone else locked the doors that represented the ultras’ only escape
route. And as the fighting raged, the police simply stood and watched.

For Abdelhamid, it
was obvious who was behind what happened in Port Said. “With that massacre, the
regime made it very clear that it was against the ultras,” he says. “It was
punishing them for their participation in the revolution against Mubarak
regime.”

Almost exactly
three years on, Abdelhamid claims that Sunday’s stampede was Zamalek’s Port
Said moment. Having been trapped himself in what he calls the “passage of
death”, it is hard for him to attribute the manner in which fans were hemmed
into such a tiny space, and then sprayed with teargas, to simple negligence.

Amateur footage of Sunday’s
stampede in Cairo.

Others can’t be
sure. “There’s always a chance that it’s politicised in some way,” says Islam
Issa, an Egyptian football analyst, academic, and players’ agent. “But it’s
pretty impossible to pinpoint things at this stage. I don’t think there’s an
established account yet of the Port Said massacre three years ago, so we can’t
even be close to understanding what happened this week.”

Certainly, the
ultras, as a collective, pose a slightly smaller threat to the police than they
did three years ago. One result of Port Said was that subsequent games were
played behind closed doors – Sunday’s match was one of the first to be reopened
to the public – and so the group’s ability to gather and mobilise has been
diminished.

A return to
Mubarak-era authoritarianism has also constricted their activities. And their
potency as a united political force was undermined by the fallout from the overthrow of the ex-president
Mohamed Morsi in 2013, a move that left Egyptians highly
polarised. Zamalek’s White Knights were no exception, and so in an attempt to
maintain their unity, in recent months UWK mobilised around internal club
issues, and stayed away from national ones.

But the particulars
of those internal struggles also hint at why the ultras might once again be in
the crosshairs of the state.

A Zamalek supporter wearing a Guy
Fawkes mask near a burning police car outside the stadium in Cairo. Photograph:
STR/EPA

For much of the
past year, the ultras have been at loggerheads with Zamalek’s chairman, an oddball, loudmouth lawyer named
Mortada Mansour. A self-proclaimed counter-revolutionary, Mansour
has made no secret of his hatred for ultras and protesters in general. For
their part, some of the ultras tried to douse him in urine. In return, the
pro-regime Mansour tried to get them listed as terrorists.

“They are not fans,
they are criminals,” Mansour claimed in an interview with the
Guardian late last year. “They are using bombs, live ammunition and shotgun
pellets … but I continue because this is part of the nation’s battle against
terrorism.”

Given this context,
the idea that Zamalek’s White Knights were intentionally targeted is, for James
Dorsey, “not an unreasonable conclusion, but I don’t think it’s an established
fact.”

But for the likes
of Abdelhamid, there are just too many coincidences, and UWK represent too much
of a potential threat to the regime, for Sunday’s stampede to have happened
because of incompetence alone. “I think the regime was shaking with fear,” says
Abdelhamid. “To the degree that it imagined that the entrance of fans at this
time of clear political upheaval might cause embarrassment to the regime in
Egypt, that the chants of the fans would convey the facts about the political
regime in Egypt.”

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For Mohamed*, a 23-year-old member of Ultras White Knights (UWK) - a hardcore group of football fans that support Cairo-based Zamalek Sporting Club - Sunday started with a sense of excitement.

For the first time in over three years - since the February 2012 Port Said disaster in which 74 al-Ahly fans died - spectators were allowed to attend an Egyptian Premier League match.

Yet, Sunday turned into another day of tragedy as at least 19 Zamalek fans died following clashes with the security forces outside the stadium. The deaths are likely to trigger further unrest.

"We will take our revenge as we know the government won't take any action, except to announce the opening of an investigation that will lead to nothing," said

Mohamed.

OPINION: Egypt's Ultras: Fast and furious

A large number of fans had turned up at the Air Force Stadium in Cairo hoping to gain entry into the match between Zamalek SC and ENPPI. The authorities had allocated 10,000 tickets for the match in the 30,000 capacity stadium, although only 5,000 were available to the public.

Many were trampled and crushed in a stampede as supporters fled tear gas and birdshot used by the police to disperse fans massing at the stadium's gates - including many who were in a narrow metal tunnel that had been constructed to regulate the numbers entering the stadium.

The UWK said that 28 of their members were killed, while the Ministry of Health reported that 19 bodies had been taken to public hospitals.

A "large numbers of ticketless fans tried to storm the stadium, which caused security forces to prevent them from damaging the stadium facilities",

the Ministry of Interior said in a

statement

.

"This incident was well arranged," countered

Yusef*, another member of the UWK who had attempted to enter the stadium.

"[It] is connected to the January 25 revolution."

Like the Ultras Ahlawy - who support Zamalek's rival al-Ahly - the Ultras White Knights were formed in 2007. Their members are overwhelmingly men in their teens and early 20s.

The ultras of various clubs were one of the few groups to regularly confront the police during ousted President Hosni

Mubarak's

time in power. Their street-fighting effectiveness came to the fore when they united to battle the security forces during the protests that toppled Mubarak.

They also played a significant role during demonstrations against subsequent governments and in the ongoing protests on

university campuses

.

Although they admit to regularly clashing with the authorities,

leading members of the UWK

claimed that they only react to police violence.

UWK leaders also claim that, as a group, they have no political affiliation and that they are united by a passionate loyalty to the club and the game. Many share an intense animosity towards the security forces and a distrust of the government and authorities within the sport.

RELATED: 'Ultras' fuel Egypt's campus protests

Timothy E Kaldas, a professor of politics at Nile University, said that Sunday's incident was unlikely to be premeditated and that the deaths were more a result of police incompetence and impunity.

"The police are not particularly skilled at dealing with crowds or even using their own equipment, and there is no pressure on them to change because there is no accountability," said Kaldas.

The deaths are the latest in a number of mass killings involving the security forces since the 2011 uprising.

Mubarak Maher, a senior editor at Ahram Online and freelance editor at African Football Media, said that the authorities had recently been trying to reduce tensions with fans, allowing Ultras Ahlawy to attend the Confederation Cup final in December. "After which president Sisi and local media made a very unusual move of praising the ultras because 'they behaved well'."

The authorities announced that spectators would be allowed to attend league matches again in the second half of the season, starting on Sunday. Yet, Maher said that Sunday's incident "marks the failure of the government to ease tensions with the ultras groups".

This begs the question as to why agreements, safety measures, and initiatives to work with the ultras were not implemented.

Some analysts argue that attempts to control football fans should be seen in the context

of a widespread crackdown on dissent and nonconformity that has intensified since the general-turned-president Abdel Fattah el-Sisi ousted the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013.

The crackdown has encompassed Islamists, leftists, liberals, students, NGOs, LGBT people, migrants, and journalists - as well as football fans.

Dozens of UWK members were arrested last year in a series of protests and incidents relating to an escalating feud with Zamalek's President Mortada Mansour, who was a prominent figure during the Mubarak era and is an ally of President Sisi.

Mansour has consistently equated the ultras with the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood, and last year brought a series of private lawsuits against the UWK to have the group banned and designated as terrorists. A court is set to rule on the lawsuits.

RELATED: Football and politics in Egypt: An explosive mix

The incident on Sunday renews the rancour of the feud with Mansour, who was quick to blame the ultras for the violence. UWK member Mohamed reacted by saying that Mansour had announced there would be a surprise for the fans at the stadium. "Was the surprise to kill us

in a trap?" asked Mohamed angrily.

James M Dorsey, author of a blog and forthcoming book about football in the Middle East, says that football presents the authorities with a dilemma in a country that is infused with fanaticism for the sport. "This is a government that, like its military predecessor [SCAF] as well as the Mubarak government, does not tolerate any uncontrolled public space. You can close off Tahrir Square but you can't permanently shut down soccer stadiums."

Dorsey argues that the stadiums provided a release valve for the anger and frustration of young men, but also that the authorities fear they inculcate dissent.

The death of the fans, says Dorsey, is likely to politically galvanise the ultras, who were one of Egypt's strongest social movements: "It indicates that there is no willingness on the part of the Egyptian government to ease the crackdown on the ultras, or on political dissent."

"The consequences will be bad and there might be more casualties soon," said Maher. "The Ultras White Knights group will definitely retaliate, although it's not yet clear what they are going to do exactly."

Kaldas agrees that the deaths are likely to trigger more clashes between the police and ultras in the near future, but thinks the political fallout is likely to be limited.

Kaldas also questioned the political power of the ultras movement. "While they can mobilise their supporters, they can't really mobilise much more beyond that. And while their supporters might be impressive in terms of street presence, they are not necessarily numerically substantial in a country of 86 million people."

Although Sunday's match went ahead, the government later announced the indefinite postponement of the league.

Sisi expressed "great sorrow" over the deaths and promised an investigation.

"We don't believe in the state's justice," said UWK member Yusef. He said that the ultras will take action, but did not provide details. "There will be no football till we get the rights of the martyrs."

Whether the deaths fundamentally shift public opinion is debatable. "

The incident can only make more people sympathise with the ultras, but all of that will vanish following the first violent reaction [of the ultras], like what happened in Port Said and its aftermath," says Maher.

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About Me

James M DorseyWelcome to The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer by James M. Dorsey, a senior fellow at Nanyang Technological University’s S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Soccer in the Middle East and North Africa is played as much on as off the pitch. Stadiums are a symbol of the battle for political freedom; economic opportunity; ethnic, religious and national identity; and gender rights. Alongside the mosque, the stadium was until the Arab revolt erupted in late 2010 the only alternative public space for venting pent-up anger and frustration. It was the training ground in countries like Egypt and Tunisia where militant fans prepared for a day in which their organization and street battle experience would serve them in the showdown with autocratic rulers. Soccer has its own unique thrill – a high-stakes game of cat and mouse between militants and security forces and a struggle for a trophy grander than the FIFA World Cup: the future of a region. This blog explores the role of soccer at a time of transition from autocratic rule to a more open society. It also features James’s daily political comment on the region’s developments. Contact: incoherentblog@gmail.comView my complete profile